This book was really really amusing... if you like reading psychobabble. If we could put negative signs in front of the stars, this baby would have -5 stars.

This book attempts to analyze Catholic Marian devotion using Freudian psychology, and many of its strange conclusions arise from this approach. For instance, the author argues that Mary appeals to Catholic men because they have an "oedipal" need for a mother, while she appears to Catholic women because she fulfills their (alleged) "subconscious desire" to have a child by their fathers (since Catholics believe that Mary bore the Son of God the Father). While his conclusion about men may have some validity (we all need a spiritual Mother) his conclusion about women is absurd (Freud was never right about women anyway). I am a Catholic mother, and I have spoken to many Catholic mothers like myself, and the reason why we love Mary - besides the fact that she is our Mother in heaven - is because we can relate to her as a mother and feel that she knows what we are going through, since she too had a family. This guy just doesn't have a clue!

His analysis of Marian apparitions is similarly awful; the author simply ignores any historical details of the apparitions which do not fit his pat theories. The treatment of Guadalupe is perhaps the worst; he claims that the apparitions to Juan Diego are a myth, and that they were never recorded until long after the event! The fact is, there *are* contemporaneous documents which mention the apparition; a little research would have confirmed that. And Juan Diego *is* a historical personage; in fact he was recently beatified by the Catholic Church. The pope does not beatify mythological characters!

Don't even bother reading this book; there are much better treatments of the subject.

This book will be a hard read for the Catholic Marian faithful, and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets Mr. Carroll on quite a few lists of books to avoid. However, I would like to speak in his defense. First of all this is a book written by a social scientist for social science. It is full of terms that are well understood in the disciplines but that are negatively loaded (One might even say explosive) when read from the standpoint of Catholic Devotional literature. For instance Mr. Carroll describes St. Bernadette Soubirous' Marian aparition, as a halucination. Within the context of his analysis, this is an appropriate psychological term, as nobody else could see the aparition. However to the religious this term invalidates the experience, it makes it unreal.This was clearly not the intention of Mr. Carroll. His research is well documented and his theories well supported. His analysis and arguments are complete. They are thoroughly presented, almost to the point of redundancy. And the fact of the matter is that it works. When we are through with the book we have a deeper understanding of the forces that shape Catholic worship and Marian devotion. I like this book. I have passed it along to friends and family and it has stimulated hours of discussion, debate and even red-faced argument. This book should be read by serious Marian scholars.

This book promises much more than it delivers. It talks a good game, but ultimately is somewhat shallow, superficial, and empty in terms of specific, applicable exercises or techniques. I'm rather new to the NLP area, but I have to believe that other books on this topic would be much better. The book does, however, seem to cover/survey a lot of the general information and content surrounding NLP, so, in that respect, it has some redeeming value.

This book disappointed me, because I was hoping for something more vividly and eloquently written. I gather Mr. Carroll is not a professional writer, and for me it showed.

Still, it's commendable that this period of the AFL's history has been captured for posterity.

This history text is certainly effective in outlining the most visible events of the past 50 years, but it makes no significant attempt to analyze them. Larger, more abstract issues, such as neo-imperialism, are completely ignored, and this book, therefore, offers nothing about US history that could not be surmised from a CBS documentary. This book is also conservatively oriented, and the sections detailing liberal and radical movements are riddled with quotation marks. Such punctuation clearly indicates that the authors are disagree with these activists, yet their dissent is expressed implicitly without any intellectual discussion, which is unprofessional and sub par academically.

This is a slightly amusing and trashy book if you have an hour or two to spare. Don't gear up for any major intellectual challenges, this is the standard bodice-ripper Harlequin-type romance combined with adult bawdy themes. It consists of two stories which might make the more prudish of us blush, but excite the more mildly prurient reader. The stories take place in the Victorian era, and our lovely ladies have a heck of a more lively sex life than we were ever led to believe took place during those times.

My anticipation was high as much of the literature on PTSD in forensic context is very new. Chapters are written by individuals reputed to be knowledgable in each area. Editing left much redundancy, such that I skip 1/4 of the book because I'd alread read it! It is also very elementary. If you have very little idea of what PTSD is, and have never been to court, this is for you. Others, keep looking.

I am disappointed about this book mainly because (1) there is no technical discussion about the setup of storefront and payment gateway (2) the authors recommend advertiser's services...kind of bias (3) it does not cover all the latest technologies, despite the fact that it's published in Sep 1999! (4) there is too much unnecessary text with repetitive info and most importantly (5) I still don't know how to set up an e-commerce solution on a dedicated hosting platform, after reading this 394 pages book in a week. If you are reading Business 2.0 or Inter@active week already, don't buy this book. However, if you are new to e-com and want to get a quick grasp of the major components, this book may help you.

After reading Frommers and Maui Revealed this book had nothing new to offer. A big disapointment. I left it in the hotel room.

It turns out this book is about anagrams; it is not a deep exploration of Lewis Carroll's life. Supposedly, Charles Dodgson AKA Lewis Carroll used anagrams to encode homosexual messages into his work. A quick trip to anagramfun.com convinced me that one can find anagrams for anything in anything. I even found a clever one for the title of this work, which amazon.com won't let me print.

The author of this book repeats over and over how he set a very strict rule of using all the letters in a phrase for constructing anagrams. Let us now turn to page 40, and I quote, "There are fifty letters in the verse aqnd with eight removed an anagram emerges which I believe represents a manifesto..."

The anagram is then used as one of the epigraphs of the book.

So what was that about a strict rule?

This book is simply filled with bizarre assumptions. The underlying assumption is that Lewis Carroll filled his poems and stories with a variety of anagrams that tell about his homosexuality, his lust for young children, his desire for dalliances with animals, his hate for his father, and on and on. Every incident in a story must mean something sordid. Every phrase must be turned into the most foul and vulgar anagram possible. I'm reminded of the Freud quote; "Somtimes a cigar is just a cigar." Mr. Wallave would have done well to heed this thought.

One possible anagram for this title:
ANGRY SELECTOR ILL OAF WHO
wrote this darn book.

I was sorry to see the negative review of this book. I read it and the following book with great interest. I've read extensively about criminology, psychology, and serial killers, including all the current thought on Jack the Ripper. Overall, I think the book makes an interesting case. And, it's well written and just plain interesting. We have such a nostalgic view of Carroll's work, it's difficult to see it challenged. But, that's one reason I like the book & author; a cherished subject is not often examined critically and when it's well done (as this is), it provides a new lens to view the subject.

I bought this book under the assumption that it was non-fiction. From the other reviews I figured there wouldn't be a whole lot of new information, but any tidbit of new information was worth it for me. I am sorry to say that though the book is laid out in a very artistic and imaginative manner, that's about it. Upon opening the book, I noticed that there aren't any photographs'that's okay, but the watercolors were blatantly incorrect. The geisha are wearing the kimonos wrong (it's right side under left side for the living). Only dead people wear them in the way depicted on pages 6 ,10, and 16. It isn't that the images were accidentally reversed either. In the same picture, the artist depicts both the correct and incorrect way of wearing the kimono, both on live people. This made me suspicious of the book. I think rightly so. The author makes sweeping generalizations, 'All Japanese artists are aware of the traditions'' (This is on page 12. 'All' is not a word you want to use in non-fiction, unless you mean it. I realize this is trivial, but as I say I was suspicious, so this bothered me.) Next they say, ''obi are tied in front by geisha, in the back by maiko'' (This on page 13). Hmm, all the other literature on geisha state that geisha NEVER tie their obi in the front'but you know, courtesans, 'oiran' do. Page 15 states that kanzashi were INTENDED for self-protection. I do not know for a fact that they weren't, but if this is so, then why were kanzashi made of fragile materials like tortoise shell, or malleable metals like gold and silver? I don't know much about shunga (erotic prints), but as none of them were credited to any Japanese artists maybe they aren't Japanese at all'like the watercolors in the first section? I don't know, but based on the strangeness of part one, maybe they aren't'

In summation, this is a great book if someone is looking to be titillated and doesn't really care about the veracity of the facts. I was really disappointed, but then again, this is only my opinion. I bought the book expecting one thing when it was another. I suppose if I had bought it for the layout or for some other reason other than the desire for factual information, it might have been great. I apologize if I am wrong, and the book is entirely factually correct'

Yet another cheap attempt to make money off the Geisha name! Why is it that because geisha are Asian females and happen to be entertainers must they always end up associated with sex? If the authors of this blatant attempt to increase the audience for their shunga-philia really paid attention to Liza Dalby's book, Geisha (which they mined extensively for their Public Face section), they would have noted that training in the sexual arts has no place in world of real geisha! If they want to write about Japanese erotica, fine, but they shouldn't use it in a way to pander to Western fantasies that are patently false. It is a slap in the face to all true geisha who follow the road of artistic discipline and to the Japanese people whom they often represent. I'm sick of books like this!

I received this book as a present and sits within my collection of geisha books...but unfortunately - unlike my other books, I was quite disapointed with it. The layout and cover of this book though, is quite unique - a refreshing change...and the artwork in it is beautiful, that is of course - if you can appreciate erotic prints!

The book itself, is divided into two sections. The 'Public Face' of the geisha and the 'Private Face' of the geisha. The information you will find in the 'Public Face' is nothing new to those whom are familiar with other geisha books - namely 'Geisha' by Liza Dalby - but for those who are new to the world of geisha...it provides decent information.

It was the "Private Face" of the geisha that I found myself angry about. I am by no means a prude and I appreciate shunga prints...but the use of shunga prints in this book I felt was VERY misleading. These shunga prints are NOT of geisha - but rather, they are of courtesans of the pleasure quarters- tayu, yujo or oiran.

After reading this book, I felt that it only fed even more to the misconception that the western world have of geishas - that they are just mere prostitutes catering to the every whim of men - rather than them being accomplished and serious artisans.

I really do think that more thought and researching should have been put in this book rather than a quick throw together to cash in on the "geisha wave".